Chương 663: Chapter Forty-Four - You Talk Like an Old Lady

"To: Marcus, COO From: A. Sherpa, Head of Data & Player Analytics Subject: Q3 CRA Metrics Hey Marcus, Just a follow-up. Got the data in from last year's Q3. Our AI has gone over it all, as well as the programming and stats team. Looks like there's been a pretty effective 18. 7% increase in game-time retention. The new gacha mechanics are working. We're also seeing a marked increase in player thought time. People that try our new machines keep thinking about them, up to two weeks post-game.

I think we might see good numbers in Q1 of this year, even with the incursion! Speaking of which..." --Memo between Velvet Wheel Upper-Management, 2057

"So, where are we going now?" Nya asked. I frowned as I considered it. We were back in the Bastion getting buckled into the ship's cockpit. It was still relatively early. Seven-ish in the evening, actually. I wasn't hungry, and I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere. I had classes in the morning, but like... I wasn't going to sleep for a while still, so it felt kind of weird to just go back home right now. Then again, I could go snuggle with Lucy, that was never a waste of time.

"Hey, Nya, how long are you going to be around New Montreal for?" I asked. Nya shrugged.

"A couple more days? Until the ronin back at Nya's home start asking that she comes back. They have already, but not in a very serious way. They'll call Nya when the world is ending or something. Oh! Does Stray Cat want to visit Japan?"

"Uh, maybe one day," I said dismissively. So, I had Nya's... presence for a couple more days, at least. She wasn't all that bad. Not great or anything, but not that bad. I kinda felt like using the fact that she was here. Being a samurai opened a lot of doors. And the doors it didn't open, I could usually blow off their hinges. Having a top-tier samurai along? That seemed like it would only make it even easier to get what I want.

"Hey, Myalis, where was the last Conclave thing held?" I asked. You have access to the internet. You can look it up yourself.

"Yeah, but it's so much easier to ask you," I said. Nya giggled.

"You have a weird relationship with your AI friend," she said.

"Nya feels like she's friends with hers."

"What's your AI called?" I asked.

"And are they a massive, sarcastic pain in the ass?"

"Nya's AI is Nya!" Nya said. I... could have guessed that, actually.

"Uh-huh," I said before opening a browser. I typed in 'when was the last NM crime conclave' into the search bar, then tapped enter. The first three hundred results were ads, and after that, it was mostly nonsense. Oh, fine. Seeing you trying to navigate even primitive technology is tortuous. The conclave that you're seeking took place in the Velvet Wheel casino on the south shore of New Montreal.

"Thank you!" I chirped before punching that into the ship's navigation. It was a fair ways away, on the far southern end of the city. If we had to use normal travel to get there, it would take a few hours to arrive, but flying a straight line across the city cut the time down to just under twenty minutes. We took off, leaving the building with Gros Baton and Hedgehog (and Rac) behind and taking to the stormy skies.

It was raining a bit harder than usual, which mostly meant that there were raindrops the size of fists coming down and splattering against the Bastion's side as we shot across the city. Nya started talking about food. Apparently the local stuff we had here was ass compared to the food back where she was from, though she liked the poutine and complimented Lucy's cooking, so I didn't need to see if the Bastion had ejection seats. We made it to the casino with minimal fuss.

I wouldn't admit it to her, but Nya was actually kind of funny sometimes. The Velvet Wheel was a massive facility. Only six or seven floors tall, but it had a large footprint, taking up a chunk of the southern shore. There were several parking facilities around the casino itself, which stood as a sort of glittering, all-gold wheel. The outer sections were all curved around, forming a massive circle with bridges in the centre reaching out towards a central pillar, like spokes on a wheel.

The central tower rose up to thirty or so floors above ground level, with a huge sign with the casino's name on it. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I circled the space, aware that the entire time, we were being scanned and pinged by security. A few hover cars took off and trailed after the Bastion after a minute or so. Little armoured cars with roof-mounted turrets and the casino's name and logo slapped onto the side.

There were parking garages nearby, but I settled for bringing the Bastion down by the front of the building. It scoured the ground clean of dust, throwing it up and away as I landed with a thump in front of a valet-parking station just a few metres from the front entrance.

"We're here," I said.

"You park like a cat," Nya said.

"I don't think cats are in the habit of parking," I said.

"Nya will buy you a kitten. Like, a small kitty cat kitten. It feels weird that you don't have experience with actual cats."

"No thanks," I said.

"So, goal here is to touch-base with whoever's in charge of this place, let them know that we want to, uh, I guess rent out their casino for a big gang meetup next week or so."

"Oh, this is going to be fun!" Nya said.

"Nya should have brought a big gun. Those always make these kinds of meetings more fun." I snorted, then invited Nya to the back, where I did have a few old guns laying around. That old grenade launcher that I hadn't used in a while was there, and Nya scooped it up and hugged it close while giggling to herself. I geared up a bit as well, making sure my armour was sitting on me properly. It wasn't that I didn't trust this place... but I sure as shit didn't trust this place.

Especially since a glance through the Bastion's exterior cameras showed that we were quickly being surrounded by security, and they didn't look like common mall-cops either. The casino's security was a mix of guys in uniform, but also a lot of dudes in body armour with plate carriers and full-faced helmets. I saw a lot of small SMGs in that crowd. I was pretty sure it wasn't anything that could harm either of us, but it was concerning that there were this many people armed this well just standing around.

This could either be a good sign, that the place was properly secure, or it could be a very bad sign. I opened the side door of the Bastion and stepped up, only for Nya to skip out ahead of me. We were greeted by a straight-faced man in the casino's security uniform. The whole place had a black and gold aesthetic going on, which was properly fancy, but they weren't exactly my colours of choice.

"Hello, and welcome to the Velvet Wheel casino, New Montreal's most prestigious gambling and entertainment haven. Might I request that you move your vehicle to one of the designated parking spaces nearby?" Well, he was polite, at least, even if it looked like saying that had taken as much effort as pulling nails.

"Sure thing," I said. An aug command to the Bastion later and its doors shut and the ship started to spool up its engines.

"I'll just have it fly circles around the casino," I said.

"This is private airspace," he said.

"I'm big on sharing," I replied.

"So, we're here to talk to your boss's boss's boss."

"Triple boss," Nya said.

"That's right. Whoever passes for the big head-boss type here. We need to set up an... event, and figured that this place might be the right one."

"You want to speak with Mister Veaux?" the security guy asked.

"He accepts appointments, on occasion."

"Cool. Is he free right now?" I asked.

"I can wait a few minutes." The nicest part about being a samurai was trampling all over bureaucracy and useless time-wasting shit. The guard slowly nodded, then stepped back to make an obvious call. I listened in, and it was mostly him letting someone further up the chain know that we wanted to talk to someone important. The people on the other end weren't happy about it.

I was getting the impression that things were done a certain way here, and that the general attitude was that not respecting the way things were meant to be was very uncommon and extremely taboo. Sucked to suck though. Nya's shit-eating grin was all I needed to see to know that she didn't mind kicking down the front door because it would be funny. Eventually, the guard returned.

"Mister Veaux is willing to make some time in his busy schedule to meet with you," he said.

"If we asked that you disarmed..."

"We wouldn't listen," I finished for him.

"I see. In any case, follow me." Well, at least we were getting somewhere.